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Facebook is building a village that will include housing, a grocery store and a hotel

Billions of people spend a lot of time living their
lives on Facebook's social network. Now Facebook wants to try its
hand at creating a community in the real world.

The internet giant wants to build housing, retail stores, a hotel
and more at its corporate headquarters - in short, Facebook wants
to build its own town.

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Facebook unveiled plans on Thursday for the massive new
construction project at its Menlo Park, California corporate
campus, which is part of Facebook's plans to expand its home
base. The 56-acre site, which Facebook bought in
2015 for about $400 million, is located directly across
the street from Facebook's headquarters. It will offer
1.6 million square feet of housing, or
1,500 units.

In a blog post announcing the plans, Facebook described the
future development as a "mixed-use village" that will provide
residents, many of which will be Facebook employees, with
housing, transportation services and other amenities.

It will take roughly a decade to build, according to a person
familiar with the plans. The initial phase of the project, which
will include the housing and grocery store, will be wrapped up in
the first half of 2021. The subsequent phases will be completed
every two years, according to a blog post on
Facebook's website.

source

Facebook

While
most of the housing will likely go to Facebook employees,
Facebook is opening up the housing to the community at large. The
housing will be a mix of market rate and affordable housing
units, with 225 units, or 15%, priced below market rate.

"Part of our vision is to create a neighborhood center that
provides long-needed community services," Facebook wrote.

One benefit of having employees live so close to campus is a
reduction in the amount of traffic in the area, according to the
blog post.

While Facebook has presented the plans to the City of Menlo Park,
they have not yet been approved. The company expects the approval
process to take about two years.